Commemorating its victims with benefits, new works and quiet heroism

Madonna strode onstage, and 15,000 fans went bats. "It feels great to be in a house full of people who care," she told the Madison Square Garden crowd. "AIDS is a strange and powerful disease. But we're more powerful." Then Madonna, who lost her "best friend," Painter Martin Burgoyne, 24, to AIDS, rocked the Garden with old songs given pertinent twists. As she sang Papa Don't Preach, the screens flashed Ronald Reagan's image; at song's end, they bore the message SAFE SEX. Everyone got the message from the concert, which raised $400,000 for the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AMFAR), and...